I believe in omens.
Not everyone does. Or at least, not everyone is willing to admit they believe in omens.
Omens fit in roughly the same category as superstitions, which began to lose their popularity in America around the time germs were discovered. But some of us — although we may believe in germs — nevertheless also believe in omens. An omen is a message from the supernatural world providing a warning or guidance, something America sorely needs in 2024.
When we are at a tipping point.
The Ruby Sisson Library on South 8th Street has some shelving in their entryway, where they give away free books.
I normally assume, if someone is giving something away for free, either there’s something wrong with it, or it was gathering dust in the attic. Obviously, they don’t want it anymore, but they’re open to the idea that someone less fortunate might want it.
I consider myself less fortunate than certain other people, so I’m not ashamed to review the books on the entryway shelves when I leave the library, and occasionally I strike it rich with a book no one else wants.
This may have happened a few days ago, when I found a ‘National Bestseller’ in excellent condition, in the middle of the second shelf.
The book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, written by Malcolm Gladwell, made it into the realm of ‘National Bestsellers’ shortly after its publication in 2000. Mr. Gladwell was a reporter for The Washington Post from 1987 to 1996, and then became a staff writer for The New Yorker. So you might assume he leans left.
But his book was not leaning left, or right, when I saw it on the ‘free books’ shelf. It stood proudly upright.
As mentioned, the book was in excellent condition. You might even think that it had never been cracked open, except for a scrap of an old newspaper inserted near the halfway point, implying that the previous owner had made it at least that far, and perhaps no farther.
So what I had here was a ‘double omen’. A book called The Tipping Point, in good condition. And a specific page marked with a scrap of an old newspaper.
I’ve experienced ‘tipping points’ in the past. Little things that made a big difference. I’m thinking, for example, of the day Darlene told me she was pregnant, and we suddenly decided to get married. I had no idea at the time the big difference that would eventually make. I wasn’t paying attention to omens at the time.
Another tipping point happened when Darlene moved to Phoenix with her new boyfriend. While we were still married.
Talk about a tipping point making a big difference.
I brought the book home without checking to see which page was marked by the scrap of newspaper, although I was sorely tempted. I wanted to be in a quiet space before I opened the book. Omens need to be treated with respect, if you want to benefit from them.
I sat down at the kitchen table, pushing the breakfast dishes aside, and found the page marked by the newspaper scrap. Page 102.
Did the number 102 have a special meaning, regarding my future? I had no idea.
But maybe the warning or guidance was within the text on that page?
The first paragraph on that page read like this:
If you take these two studies together — the toys study and the editing study — you reach quite a radical conclusion about children and television. Kids don’t watch when they are stimulated, and look away when they are bored. They watch when they understand and look away when they are confused. If you are in the business of educational television, this is a crucial difference. It means if you want to know whether — and what — kids are learning from a TV show, all you have to do is to notice what they are watching.
Well, that didn’t seem to be helpful. Apparently, Mr. Gladwell was discussing TV shows like Sesame Street.
My kids are grown and gone, but to judge by their current lifestyles, whatever they learned from TV came from watching South Park.
Then I noticed the torn scrap of newspaper that some supernatural force had chosen, to mark page 102.
One one side, it was black. On the other side it had the following lettering:
L Christm
ALL Christm
ALL Chris
There was my omen. A smile spread across my face.
No guidance could have been any clearer.
“Give the book to someone, for Christmas.”